The Environment Is A System Of Living Things

In recent years, Earth’s issues have become increasingly politicized, publicized, and economically important. When you examine how the environment affects us and how we affect it, it’s easy to see that overpopulation is one of earths most pressing environmental issues.

the population is said to reach 9 billion by 2050. The overpopulation of humans is causing destructive impacts on the environment and a high demand for resources. One destructive impact would be climate change because of the exceeding rate of humans, causing pollution in the air. While the Earth is having a tough time sustaining particular resources, the high demand causes the earth to force to get its nonrenewable resources. Overpopulation can lead to dangerous impacts of pollution, depleted resources, habitat loss, etc. Overpopulation is a controversial topic. While there are those who are not paying attention to its effects, the world is displaying its resources will soon disappear due to the depletion of nonrenewable resources such as water, oil, and soil. Addressing the problems and concerns of overpopulation now, can help save the lives of individuals in the future, LITERALLY!

Overpopulation, pollution, global warming, climate change, genetic modification, ocean acidification, water/soil pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and ozone depletion are among some of the main factors that have a negative impact on the planet. Overpopulation is one the most concerning environmental issues currently. Overpopulation is defined as the human population of a specific area exceeding the carrying capacity. Overpopulation can occur from an increase in births mainly or a decline in deaths. Also, other factors that affect overpopulation can be an increase in immigration or a depletion of resources. It was stated by the United Nations that the worth has a total carrying capacity of somewhere between 4 and 16 billion. Currently we hold over 7 billion humans on Earth. As of 2017 the UN has increased their population predictions to 9.8 billion by 2050 and up to 15 billion by 2100. Pollution we hear about every day.

No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain

Overpopulation can damage or even destroy the environment. The need for resources will grow with the population, but natural resources will not be produced at a fast enough pace. Man may try to produce the resources they need themselves but will there be enough space? According to Young the average person needs a minimum of 100 square feet to feel comfortable in a living space (“How Much Space Do You Really Need?”). Using the estimated population size of 2050, human living space will take up 43.8 billion square feet. Assuming most of these people live in apartment buildings so there is room for farming. Farms will need to switch out crops every year to slow down the process of soil degradation.

This article is about the U.S. overpopulation and its effects on the environment. Our population grows by 285 people per hour. With this increase of 2,500,000 people per year our renewable resources are limited. The need for urbanization is depleting the land needed for growing food and the U.S. consumption of energy is continually rising. As a result, the population growth will contribute to more pollution, overcrowding, loss of open land, and the death of many species. Some of our much needed lakes and rivers are slowly evaporating, which means a limited supply of water for our nation.

Our earth, where we are born, where we grow, where we live, is our home. We as humans interconnect with the environment by influencing and affecting each other. Our responsibility is to cherish and take care of our home. We are stewards over the earth and we should preserve the earth and its natural resources, but we cannot have a reliable planet if populations are growing out of control. E.O. Wilson said, “We are in a bottleneck of over population and wasteful consumption that could push half of the Earth’s species to extinction in this century.” (1)

The population of Earth is estimated to be seven and a half billion, and the current growth rate per year is around eighty million. Since the world’s population is constantly growing at such a high rate, some people believe that it will lead to the downfall of the human race, while others think it is beneficial to continue on this path. The ongoing debate on world overpopulation allows many different people to offer their unique opinions, such as Erle C. Ellis, Joel Kotkin, Robert Walker, and Alon Tal. These writers offer perspectives that support and conflict the different aspects of the overpopulation issue. Both Ellis and Kotkin believe that overpopulation is not an issue, while Walker and Tal strongly believe that it is. Ellis

Stephen Emmott, the author of Ten Billion, states in his book, “that if population levels continue to rise, our grandchildren will see the Earth plunged into an unprecedented environment crisis.” There are many threats to our biosphere, that are directly related to human population increases. Over the past last two decades, the human

Human culture now has the potential to inflict irreversible damage on the environment and on its life sustaining systems and resources. Already, critical stress suffered by our environment is clearly manifest in the air, water, and soil, our climate, and plant and animal species. Should this deterioration be allowed to continue, we can expect to alter the living world to the extent that it will be unable to sustain life as we know it. Though there isn’t only one main cause to the environment’s destruction, many scientists, economists, and people in general claim that overpopulation is our problem.

Imagine a world of too many people. How can we deal with this? Can we minimize its effects? How do we take care of the future? The late Carl Sagan played an important role trying to make us understand that our planet is an insignificant Pale Blue Dot, (book) lost in a corner of the Milky Way Galaxy. The awareness, created by his book with the same title, led me to think on the Earth 's land surface which is 149,000,000 km². Well, this number is not going to increase, I thought. As time goes by, more and more people are stepping into our planet which will reach about 11 billion by the year 2100. Although the planet might be able to support this number, what might happen if it is surpassed? Overpopulation is a problem that must be addressed. But, wait! There are people who are convinced that such thing will never happen. Our ingenuity, they say, it is more than able to take care of that situation. Those were the principles and questions that made me embark on this research venture, trying to appeal to a larger discussion, among ecologists/environmentalists, about the pros and cons of what seems to be travelling towards reaching the point of no return.

Human consumption is depleting the Earth 's natural resources and impairing the capacity of life-supporting ecosystems. Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively over the past 50 years than during any other period, primarily to meet increasing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel. Such consumption, together with world population increasing from 2.6 billion in 1950 to 6.8 billion in 2009, are major contributors to environmental damage.(Human population growth and the demographic transition). Strengthening family-planning services is crucial to slowing population growth, now 85 million annually,(Essential Environment, Human Population,page 118) and limiting population size to 9.2 billion by 2050. Otherwise, birth rates could remain unchanged, and world population would grow to 11 billion.(Essential Environment, Human Population,page 120).

Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of an existing organism exceeds the carrying capacity of the earth. It is simply when the world has more than the number of an organism it can support. Human overpopulation is one of the most pressing environmental issue, and still, our population is growing at an alarming rate. “About twenty years ago, Population Reference Bureau (PRB) estimated the world’s human population to be 5.84 billion.” Today, the population of the world has risen to about 7.6 billion and according to the United Nations predictions, it is expected to reach 9.7 billion people in the next 33years.

Before now, our population was already concerned about limited resources and paranoia about the future. Amongst coming to a population of 7 billion came the term overpopulation. The term basically speaks for itself; we might be over populated. But is overpopulation a problem; if so, what can we do about it? Along with talking about the issue, to presenting possible solutions which may even take us back, the solution might be easier than we thought. As informed by Nicholas Kristof a New York Times writer, “In 1999, the United Nations’ best projection was that the world wouldn’t pass seven billion until 2013, but we reached it two years early. Likewise, in 1999, the U.N. estimated that the world population in 2050 would be 8.9 billion, but now it projects 9.3 billion Overpopulation can be defined as the comparison of our population and the number of resources used.” Here, I will be overpopulation, including statistics, and the effects taken on the economy. Our birth rates climb and we our population gets bigger and bigger, giving us our biggest issue, overpopulation. Many believe that expanding our areas and cities are the answer to any overcrowding issues. The more we expand the more natural resources we use. We are rapidly losing our natural resources, for not just ourselves but for the others we care about around us. A solution to overpopulation could be birth control, and I do agree that birth control could even help us in more ways than just overpopulation.

There are many kinds of environment: the physical environment often thought of as nature, psychological environments built out of human interactions, and political environments rife with manipulation and posturing. While there are some obvious effects that large human populations would have on the natural environment, there are also less evident psychological and political ramifications. Thus, overpopulation is today's most pressing environmental issue.